Discussing sexual violence

GWINN: And there were political struggles and Jessica’s Law passed and then there was a bit of a debate about do we all agree with Jessica’s Law and should we keep coordinating because the public defender didn’t agree with certain things and all.

It fell apart in about ’04, ’05. It still exists. If you talk to the County of San Diego today they will say it’s under the public safety group of county government and it’s being supervised by Harold Tuck and his team. But nothing ever happened. The system never came into existence. It does not exist. They had one or two grants and then no other money ever got put into it to this very day.

QUESTION: Katie do you have anything you’d like to add?

FEIFER: The question of what would I like the public to know, first of all, I would love the public to know that sexual violence happens a lot in San Diego. And it’s not usually the monsters that we see in the news, that sexual violence that is done to children and to women primarily is done by people who are not monsters. They’re people most likely you know. The second thing I would like the public to know is that this sexual violence doesn’t have to be normative and that we all need to consider it not a women’s issue but a public health issue that affects all of us in San Diego and that we do have the ability to reduce the problem. QUESTION: Verna?

TABOR: I guess I want to echo what’s already been said that sexual violence is very much a part of the fiber of our community and nationwide. It doesn’t have to be. I get asked when there’s a rape what was she wearing, what was she doing in that part of town? She wasn’t the perpetrator. She was the victim in this case. Eighty percent of sexual violence happens by somebody that the kids or adults know. And teaching them to listen to their instincts, that this is not OK, and on the flip side, when it does happen, that help’s available, they don’t have to live in shame because sometimes people live crippled lives after being sexually violated for the rest of their life without talking about it, without letting anybody know. And besides putting our resources into probation and parole I want to see us prioritize sexual assault victims, rape victims, children that have been molested, and put supports in for the services because that also is a critical part to not seeing the violence continue.

QUESTION: Mrs. Phillips.

PHILLIPS: I’m also a foster parent, as is as my sister, and so we take in children, young children who have been molested. And unfortunately a lot of times it’s the mother’s boyfriend or someone who’s molesting the child, they will choose their boyfriend, their husband or whatever, over keeping a child. And so as far as the kids having to come forward and report we do have to do it the way where the kids feel that they’re not going to break apart their family because it’s a fear that they have, We have to be careful with how we go about doing it but we do need to let kids know that it is OK to tell. But I still feel that even if it’s a family member that’s doing the molesting it’s not fair and it’s not right and the kids shouldn’t have to suffer that. They shouldn’t have to go through it

QUESTION: Thank you very, very much, all of you. I think we learned a lot and that was the purpose of this session so thank you very, very much.